Program-controlled cleaning appliances in general, and dishwashers in particular, are per se well known in the art and, therefore, need not be specifically described herein.
Cleaning appliances of the type in question typically have a washing tub providing a treatment chamber, also called washing chamber. The treatment chamber is accessible to a user via a loading opening which can be closed in a fluid-tight manner by a pivotably mounted washing chamber door. During normal use, the washing tub serves to receive items to be washed which, in the case of a dishwasher, may be dishes, cutlery items and/or the like.
In order to apply wash water, also called wash liquid, to the items to be washed, the cleaning appliance has a spray device disposed inside the washing tub. This spray device generally provides rotatable spray arms, typically two or three such spray arms. During normal use, wash liquid is applied to the items to be washed by rotating spray arms.
In order to achieve optimized cleaning results, process chemicals are used which are delivered into the washing chamber during a cleaning operation. Typically, the process chemicals are added to the wash liquid. Such process chemicals may, for example, be detergents, which are added into the washing chamber of the cleaning appliance in a program-controlled manner at a particular point in time during the operational cycle.
Detergents in liquid and solid form are known in the art. Solid detergents may be in the form of pourable powders or so-called tabs; i.e., in tablet form. However, practice has shown that the comparatively best results can be achieved with pourable detergents in powder form.
When pourable detergents in powder form are used, the user must manually measure out the detergent each time before a cleaning cycle is started. For this purpose, a cleaning appliance typically has a supply container which is disposed on the inner side of the door and has to be charged with a manually selected amount of detergent. During operation, this supply container opens at a particular point in time during the wash cycle, allowing the detergent held in the supply container to be washed out by the wash liquid present in the washing chamber of the cleaning appliance.
To be able to store detergent for a plurality of wash cycles, avoiding the need to manually measure out detergent each time before a wash cycle is started, dispensing devices have been proposed, such as the one described in DE 10 2013 104 391 A1.
This known dispensing device has a replaceable supply container for storing an amount of detergent sufficient for a plurality of wash cycles. The supply container is rotatable about an axis of rotation. During a normal dispensing event, the supply container is rotated in a program-controlled manner. For this purpose, a motor-driven drive device is provided which, when operated, causes rotational movement of the supply container. In the process, the motor-driven drive device cooperates with a carrier unit which replaceably receives the supply container.
To permit release of detergent, the supply container has a dispensing opening. During operation, detergent is released in portions through this opening. Such a release of detergent occurs in response to a rotational movement of the supply container. Each 360° rotation of the supply container causes equal portions of detergent to be fed to the dispensing opening and released from there into the washing chamber of the cleaning appliance via an interposed channel system.
To be able to effect metering of the detergent, the supply container has a reservoir chamber, on the one hand, and a metering chamber, on the other hand. The reservoir chamber is used for storing the detergent, and the metering chamber is used for dispensing the detergent in portions during operation. To this end, the metering chamber is divided into two fluidically connected sections, namely a metering space and a dispensing channel, which are separated by a barrier. The barrier bounds the metering space in such a manner that during a rotational movement of the supply container, first the metering space is filled with an amount of detergent determined by the size of the metering space. During further rotational movement, the amount of detergent introduced into the metering space is conveyed past the barrier into the dispensing channel and toward the dispensing opening without any additional detergent flowing from the reservoir chamber into the metering space. Thus, during normal use, the detergent passes from the reservoir chamber through the passage opening into the metering space of the metering chamber, the size of the metering space determining the portioned amount of detergent. When the supply container is rotated further, the portioned amount of detergent exits the metering space and passes through the dispensing channel to the dispensing opening. During this process, no additional detergent can flow from the reservoir chamber through the passage opening into the metering space of the metering chamber due to the continued rotation of the supply container.
Dispensing devices of the aforedescribed type have proven practical in everyday use. Nevertheless, there is a need for improvement, particularly with respect to increasing the ease of use for the user. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to improve a dispensing device of the above-mentioned type in such a way that it makes handling easier for the user because of the design.